


Chocolate and Cinnamon

by elessar2931



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Cussing, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Music, Musician!Cas, Musician!Dean, Orchestra, Sassy Castiel, gratuitous fluff, violin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-25
Updated: 2013-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-27 13:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elessar2931/pseuds/elessar2931
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Castiel moves to a new school, the last thing he expects is to meet Dean, the overly nice, overly hot viola player who he instantly finds himself crushing on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chocolate and Cinnamon

**Author's Note:**

> The idea kind of came to me for this orchestra fic a while ago but I never wrote it, and then I started just writing this new kid Cas fic and they sort of meshed into one. I hope it doesn't suck.  
> Also, I really love sassy Cas, so you get a bit of him in here in the beginning.

Castiel heaved a heavy sigh. He hated school. It was dirty, and the locker rooms always smelled like piss, and the lunches were bland, and the classes were unnecessarily hard, and the people treated each other like shit and he was just completely and utterly done. He would much rather stay home all day eating pizza and watching TV. Thank God he was 18 and about to get out of the hellhole that is High School forever. Though, if it’s really supposed to be the best four years of your life, what does he have to look forward to?

The red doors in front of him were chipped and worn, resembling the way he felt on the inside. The first day of school was always the worst, especially when you were the new kid. Your classmates stared at you, your teacher made you introduce yourself, you got lost in all the hallways, you were late to every class, you sat alone during lunch because you had no friends, you were picked on and hated and everyone laughed at you and okay, if Castiel was being a little overdramatic, who could blame him? This was his first new school and he’d come from two freaking states away. His brothers had all graduated and left (with the exception of Gabriel who spent all of his time dicking around the house and avoiding any kind of job) so they weren’t there. He literally had no one. (Well, that’s not true. He had his cousin, Anna. At least she’d be able to keep him company if he got too lonely.)

Sighing again, he pushed open the front doors. _Well, at least it doesn’t smell like piss._ There were dozens of students roaming around in the halls, beckoning to their friends, regaling all with tales of their epic summer vacays to Maine. Castiel trudged through them all, getting knocked to the side by two baseball idiots wrestling enthusiastically with their teammates. At least, Castiel assumed they were baseball players, judging by their uniforms. He didn’t really care anyway, so he kept on walking. 

Checking his schedule, he saw that his first period was Calculus with Mr. Duffy. Great. A class in which you actually have to think and do work, and he had it right after he woke up. At least today all they’d be doing is going over the class syllabus.

Castiel eventually found his way up the stairs and around a corner to room E203. He pushed it open. Thank God he wasn’t the only one in there. There were three other people already seated in various different parts of the room, all of them with their heads down and headphones in. Castiel found a seat in the middle of the row near the windows. He wasn’t too far back, so he could pay attention if he wanted to, but he was next to the window, so he could easily stare out of it and daydream if he felt too lazy to do anything.

Eventually, the room was full of rowdy, unkempt teenagers. They babbled continuously (and annoyingly) until the bell finally rang and a man’s voice filled the school. “Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.” Castiel stood noncommittally and placed his hand over his heart. He looked at the flag with a bored expression, not even bothering to say the pledge out loud. Why should he when no one else did, anyways?

They all sat down and listened as the rest of the announcements droned out of the speaker above the classroom door; Welcome back, hope you had a good summer, strive for success this year, try out for sports, try out for drama club, join the newspaper, kill everyone.  
It had been five minutes and Castiel was already having homicidal thoughts. Wonderful.

***

Castiel made it through Calculus, AP Environmental Science and AP Lit without murdering anyone or throwing himself off of a cliff, and none of his teachers had made him get in front of everyone and introduce himself. By fourth period, which was Latin 4, a class that he actually enjoyed, he was beginning to think that maybe this school wasn’t so bad.

“Payge Thompson.”

“Here.”

“Olivia Wilson.”

“Here.”

“Dean Winchester.”

“Yeah?” Collective snickering. Castiel turned to look at the dumbass who obviously thought he was a clown, and had to fight the urge to throw up. Who the hell was allowed to look like that? His biceps were bulging out of his navy blue Aerosmith t-shirt sleeves, his luscious pink lips (holy crap did Castiel just use the word _luscious_ to describe a guy?) stretching over a blinding smile. Despite his chiseled cheekbones and jaw, he had a soft face, framed in short sandy brown hair. Castiel couldn’t help but stare. Behind him, the teacher just moved on, completely ignoring Dean’s remark, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Dean’s eyes flicked to him, and _oh my god_ , how could he have just quadrupled in attractiveness just because of his _eyes?!_ He stared back at Castiel, his emerald green eyes sparkling in amusement at Castiel’s stupor. Eyes widening slightly, Castiel turned quickly away from the guy he most definitely did not have a crush on just from looking at and tried to focus his attention on the blackboard.

The whole class, Castiel could practically feel Dean’s presence. It was like he was standing right behind him the entire time, breathing down his neck. At one point Castiel actually had to turn around and check that no one was behind him. That hadn’t gone well at all because he ended up just staring at Dean again. Luckily, Dean didn’t notice.

When the class was finally over, he shot out of his seat and bolted from the classroom, not even remembering to pick up one of the syllabi on the front table to get it signed. He was practically running for his next class, when he heard someone yelling his name and then felt them grab his shoulder. He turned to face his assailant.

Well, shit.

“Hey, you left this on your desk. And you forgot to get one of these, I think, so here you go.” Dean smiled at him and held out a small black notebook and one of the syllabus papers.

“Oh, ah, yes.” He took his things from Dean but didn’t know where to go from there. They were both just looking at eachother now. There wasn’t any real reason for them to be; Dean had given him his shit and it was time for them to go to class. But then Castiel remembered that Dean hadn’t had to bring him all this stuff in the first place and that he was being really rude, just staring at him. “Thanks.”

Dean’s answering smile was, once again, blinding, and Castiel had to look at the ground and collect himself before he could look into his eyes again. By then, Dean was starting to walk in the same direction Castiel had been heading. “No problem.” They walked together in silence for a while, until Dean finally asked, “So, what’s your next class?”

Why was he talking to him? Why was he so nice? Why was he bothering with the new kid when he was so obviously a jock and popular and fucking hot and Castiel was just a normal, everyday, AP student? “I have orchestra.” Shit, those eyes.

“Woah, dude, no way! Me, too! I play viola. What do you play?”

Dean played the viola? That made Castiel look at him in a completely different light. He’d totally taken him as the football, jock type of guy. “Violin.” Fuck, those stupid freckles.

“Cool. Well, you’re gonna love our teacher. She’s awesome.” Castiel hadn’t realized it, but they’d already made it to the band room. Everyone was already sitting around on haphazardly situated chairs, leaning on stands and socializing. It seemed pretty easy going, and before Castiel could get the chance to respond, Dean was greeted enthusiastically by a number of their classmates.

As Dean went to sit between a younger looking boy with particularly long legs and shaggy hair, dressed in plaid, and another, also adorning plaid, with ripped jeans and a mullet to complete the look, Cas sat in a chair by himself near the back of the room, waiting for the inevitable shitfest.

After minutes of sitting in his own comfortable silence and desperately trying to avoid looking toward Dean’s unnaturally beautiful face, the office door opened and the aforementioned shitfest began. 

“Alright, guys, how was summer? Good, so was mine. Practice at all? Great. Eat a healthy breakfast this morning? Wonderful. I had oatmeal. Now! First things first. We’ll start chair tests next monday, so be prepared for that. Here’s a list of everything you’ll be doing for me on that test. The test will determine what part you’re on and what chair you’ll have (obviously.) Second things second. We have a new student. Castiel, come on up here, you know you want to give everyone a big introduction.” Everyone in the class turned to look at Castiel with matching odd looks on their faces, excluding Dean, who just kind of looked confused. He didn’t blame them; that was a weird way of being introduced by a teacher.

He got up reluctantly and went to stand in the front of the room. Once he was there, he had to pointedly avoid looking in Dean’s direction. He settled for staring at the back wall instead.

“Alright, class. This, right here, is Castiel Novak, and he’s my baby cousin. His dad is my mom’s brother, and what not. So, tell us about yourself, Castiel.” She was doing this on purpose, he knew. The small tug on the corners of her lips gave it all away. Not to mention the fact that she had teased him about this just the previous night, promising to humiliate him in front of his new classmates as much as possible, though he hadn’t really believed she would.

“My name is Castiel Novak. I’m from Pontiac, Illinois. I have a family. I have black hair and blue eyes. I’m in Orchestra...” His dry humor made a few people in the room laugh, including Dean, who seemed to be fighting hard against a very wide grin. Anna just rolled her eyes and huffed out a tiny laugh.

“Okay, alright. go sit down. Anyways, as I was saying...” But Castiel tuned her out the rest of the way, because Dean was motioning for him to sit with him and his friends, and Castiel was having a mini heart attack. _Holy shit, he wants me to sit with him. He wants me to talk to him. He’s so nice, why is he so nice? I shouldn’t go over there... No, what am I thinking, of course I’m going to go over there. What the hell? Fuck, what is wrong with me? I just met the guy ten minutes ago!_

Castiel sat down beside the tall, lanky boy who was sitting next to Dean and offered him a weak smile. “Hey, I’m Sam. Dean’s my brother.” Sam kept going and started talking about academics and whether Castiel liked English or Math better and what his favorite movie or band was. Castiel noticed his eyes weren’t as nice as his brothers. Nor was his jaw as angular. Or his hair. Nor did he have freckles or as many muscles. _Shit, STOP._ He had to mentally berate himself for all of these stupid things happening inside his brain. Then, Dean caught his eye.  
“Hey, Cas. Nice intro you had goin there.”

 _Cas? Oh my god, he gave me a nickname._ “Thanks.” He smiled, but then had to look away or he’d get even more embarrassed by the major blush that was spreading all over his face and neck.

Once Anna was finished passing out the papers about the chair test the following week, she let them all sit around and talk for the rest of the class. Castiel assumed she was being so easy going because it was the first day back.

“So, Ms. Milton's your cousin?” Dean was leaning forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands rubbing slightly together as he turned his head to look up at Castiel. He could see all of Dean’s eyelashes like this, all of his freckles, the way the overly fluorescent lights reflected down upon his face bringing out all of his best features.

“Yeah. We’re pretty close.”

“Awesome.” Dean averted his gaze and they sat silently for a while until Dean’s friend (Ash, his name turned out to be) broke that silence and dragged Dean into a conversation about cars.

The bell rang shortly after that, and it was lunchtime. As Cas was leaving, Anna winked at him and ruffled his hair, and he glowered at her, though he had to admit it was nice seeing a familiar face amongst a thousand strangers.

“Castiel,” she called out to him from her office doorway before he could leave the band room completely. She waved him over and when he got there, she hugged him tightly, her red hair getting in his face and smelling of roses. “I’m really glad you’re here. This should be fun. Besides, we need someone with your talent. We kind of sucked last year.” She smiled at him and let him go.

He scoffed, but smiled back anyways. “Thanks, Anna.”

As he left the band room, he had to check his school map to figure out where the cafeteria was. He would ask for directions, but Dean, Sam and Ash had already gone and he didn’t feel like going back to the band room to ask Anna.

Sighing, he headed in the direction he thought was right and stuck to it. He eventually made it there, the large room full of loudly chattering teenagers catching up after three months of separation. This was the part Castiel hated the most about the first day. But at least his mood had improved exponentially since that morning and he didn’t feel like killing anyone anymore.

He sat down by himself at one of the lunch tables, red paint chipping off of every corner and wooden splinters hanging off of all the surfaces. He opened his bagged lunch and inspected the contents; he’d made it himself, but forgotten what he put in there. Apparently it had been an apple, some chocolate pudding, a ham sandwich and a bag of Doritos. He loved Doritos. His mood was increasing by the second.

And then it was plummeting as Dean and Sam came loping out of the food line, trays in hand, heading for a table across the cafeteria. He hadn’t realized that he’d been hoping for Dean to come sit with him, or at least acknowledge him after their class together. But of course that wouldn’t happen. Dean had his own friends, his own status, his own reputation (whatever it was) to uphold, and he didn’t need Castiel to get in the way of that.

He opened his bag of Doritos violently, stuffing three into his mouth all at the same time, and was just considering going to the band room to have lunch with Anna when a hand landed on his shoulder and he was jolted forwards.

“Cas! Come sit with us!”

There stood Dean, as gorgeous as ever, smiling brightly down at him. Cas noticed his hand was still on his shoulder and that it didn’t seem to be moving anytime soon. He couldn’t suppress a small smile. “Okay.”  
He was right. The entire time it took him to gather his lunch and make it back to Dean’s table, Dean didn’t stop touching his shoulder or guiding him with his light push. His hand felt warm to Castiel, and he just kept thinking about how stupid he was being. _You just met him_ , and _he’s probably straight_ , and _you’re too boring_ are all examples of things Castiel was thinking while he sat at Dean’s table. Ash, Sam and a few others who didn’t seem to be as involved with Dean were all sitting there, eating their school lunches that did, indeed, seem rather bland.

Despite his discouraging thoughts, though, the signals he was receiving from Dean were nothing but encouraging. Dean kept touching his back, he kept smiling too wide at him, he kept laughing and calling him Cas and being generally way too nice. It would have made Cas uncomfortable if he hadn’t already been so totally smitten (Yes, smitten. He’d realized that he did have a crush on this heavenly creature while sitting in orchestra, watching him converse with his friends and watching the way his mouth moved around his words. And if he used the word ‘smitten’ to describe his feelings, so what? That was an accurate description.)

Lunch ended and they all went their respective ways; Castiel to Psych, Dean to Statistics, Sam to Pre-Calc (he was a Freshman and he was already in Pre-Calculus. Boy genius.) and Ash to one of his many tech classes. By the end of the day, Castiel was still happy from lunch, and he found himself looking forward to fourth period the next day, when he could see Dean again in Latin, and then maybe they’d walk to Orchestra together again, and maybe this time they’d get lunch together and Dean would walk him to his next class, and--

“Cas!” He’d been walking towards his bus, #4106, smiling slightly to himself as he thought of tomorrow, when Dean had spotted him. Now, he saw Dean. He was leaning against a large, shiny black classic looking car, smiling at him easily and waving, beckoning him closer. Castiel held his breath as he approached him, not sure what to expect. “Want a ride?My Baby can fit one more.”

 _Oh my God._ “Uhh, thanks, but I don’t know, you might live pretty far from me...” _What the hell is your problem? Say yes, damn it!_ “I’m probably really out of your way...”

“Eh, it’s no trouble. Hop on in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Dean opened the door for him and turned to get in his own seat. Cas slid into the back and they sat there awkwardly for a moment before he broke the silence. “Thank you, Dean.”

“Hey, like I said, it’s no problem.”

“No. I mean, thank you. For everything.”

Dean turned in his seat, gazing into his eyes, allowing Castiel to study his face for what felt like an eternity before saying, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, for, you know. Being my friend without even knowing me. I could have been alone, but I’m not because of you. So, thanks.”

Dean’s face softened and Castiel wondered how long they could stay like that, just looking at each other, so close inside the car, yet too far apart, content yet on edge and hopeful, anticipating what would come next, and the answer came to him as the passenger and side doors were wrenched open and Sam and Ash sat down noisily beside them, disrupting their comfortable silence: _Forever._

***

If he thought about it, it was really kind of ridiculous how fast they became friends. They sat next to each other in Latin, they walked to class together, they ate lunch together, they studied together. Hell, they even practiced together, despite the fact that they played two different instruments, and with the chair test coming up, this was pretty often. 

“No, I think that was a bit flat.” Dean adjusted his fingers and tried again, pulling the bow steadily across the viola’s string and producing a thick, rich C natural. “Perfect.” Cas smiled at him before returning to his own scales. It was a Sunday night, and the test was tomorrow. Usually Castiel didn’t stress over chair tests, but he wanted to make a good impression for his new classmates, and also, he wanted first chair. He was one of only three seniors who played the violin at Lawrence High, and he thought his chances were pretty good. He had been first chair last year, too, but that was back in Pontiac.

As he continued practicing, moving on from his two octave F scale to one of the actual pieces he had to rehearse, he didn’t notice that Dean was watching him, not bothering to practice anymore. 

As he finished running through the hardest piece, Mozart’s Amadeus, he set his violin down and took a swig from the lemonade that sat on the bedside table in Dean’s room, still studying the music. When he looked back up from the paper, he saw Dean still looking at him, and paused. He was still as gorgeous as ever, but he was beginning to be able to function properly around him now that they’d been hanging out for the past week. Still, he felt his heart rate quicken as he returned Dean’s gaze, tapping his fingers nervously on the lemonade glass and asking, “What?” with a huffed laugh.

“You’re a really good player, Cas.” 

“Thanks.” He returned to his music, plucking the strings of his violin to the tune of the song to distract himself from Dean’s face. _Why is he so attractive? Why did God have to make him so damn attractive?_  
Dean’s mom called from downstairs then, announcing that dinner was being served. This was the second time Cas had stayed over for dinner at Sam and Dean’s house, the first being just the second day Cas had known him. Dean had once again given Cas a ride home (which, surprisingly, ended up being only two blocks away from Dean’s house) and began complaining about how they already had homework in Stat and he was probably going to fail the class already, he sucked that bad at math. Cas had offered to help him on his homework (he kind of blurted it out without thinking) and there they were. Except instead of it just being Dean’s homework, they also ended up doing their Latin homework together and watching Star Wars Episode IV. 

***

“Hey, Cas!” Sam greeted him cheerily from the passenger seat of the car. Dean had decided last night to pick him up for school the next day. This greatly improved Cas’ mood for the day. He started out right and ended right. With Dean.

“Okie dokie, buckle up,” Dean teased. He winked at Cas in the rearview mirror, making his stomach flip. _God, he needs to stop doing that._

They got to school, and this time, instead of walking to class alone, Dean went with him. They first had to take their instruments down to the band locker room, but then Dean walked him to his Calc class.  
“God, I hope I don’t totally fuck up the chair test today.”

“You’ll be fine, Dean. You’re easily the best violist in the orchestra.”

“Yeah, well.” Dean stuffed his hands in his pockets, his backpack slung over his right shoulder, and paused just outside the door to Mr. Duffy’s classroom. “You’re better than all of our other seniors, I’ve gotta say. Though Jo’s pretty good. I’d watch out for her.” He winked again. _Damn it._

“Yeah. But if she does get first chair, I’ll be happy for her. It’s clear she really wants it.”

“So do you.”

Cas just looked at him, and then the first bell was ringing and Dean was clapping him on the back and walking away, heading for his own class. “Well, see you in fourth. Don’t stress too much.”

“You, too.”

It was going to be a good day.

They had a quiz in calc, despite the fact that it was only the second week. Apparently this was to see what they already knew. But he wasn’t too upset. He took the quiz and found it startlingly easy.

As the day wore on and orchestra drew nearer, he got more and more nervous. He seriously hoped he didn’t screw up. Anna had decided that she give the test in front of everyone, so the whole class would watch as she tested your abilities. Cas thought that was seriously messed up and unnecessary, but he supposed it probably got more people to practice; students don’t like looking like fools in front of other students.

When he and Dean arrived at the band room, everyone was doing last minute practice before the test. Sam and Ash were already there, as usual, Sam going over his scales on his cello and Ash plucking at his bass. Not for the first time, Cas thought Ash looked a bit odd amongst the rest of the orchestra-- he wasn’t the type one would usually assume played a string instrument. Then again, neither was Dean. 

They broke out their instruments, sitting side by side, but neither of them practiced or plucked. They just sat, quietly staring at the music in front of them. Cas didn’t because he knew for a fact that Anna hated it when she came out of the room and people were plucking (she had complained about it several times at family parties or get-togethers). He didn’t know why Dean wasn’t practicing.

When Anna came out, she looked bright and cheerful, and only soured slightly when she noticed all the hurried practicing people were squeezing in last minute. 

“Alright, alright. Stop.” She took role quickly and flipped open her score book. “We’ll start here, with Sarah.”  
The testing went smoothly, only some people royally fucking up and then some doing fantastically. Everyone was, of course, a bit out of tune. They got to Jo, who sat right next to Cas, and she was awesome, to say the least. Cas was a bit scared, not to mention intimidated, but when she finished playing she didn’t look smug or anything; her face was bright red and she nodded at all of Anna’s feedback. She was really good, and Castiel admired how down to earth she was despite of it. 

But he knew that as soon as Anna stopped talking to her, it would be his turn, and he was kind of unrealistically nervous about it. He’d been playing for nine years. He needed to get over it. But that thought didn’t help him calm down at all, and he noticed that he was shaking slightly and gripping the neck of his violin tighter and tighter...

He felt a hand cover his own and his heart rate multiplied by twelve thousand beats per minute; Dean was holding his hand, and squeezing it and smiling at him. _Holy shit. Shitshitshit._ This was doing nothing for his nerves. He tried to smile back, but he thinks it only came out as an unattractive grimace. Dean leaned forward towards Cas’ ear and placed a calming hand on his shoulder, whispering, “You gotta calm down, Cas. You’re making me nervous. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” Then he was pulling away, and thank God, he let go of Cas’ hand.  
Replaying the words in his mind, he felt himself relax somewhat. Anna was still talking to Jo. How long had it been, seriously? 

He was relatively calm by the time Anna looked at him and signalled for him to begin. He closed his eyes, willing the world around him to melt away and nothing to exist but him, his instrument, and the music, and then he was off.

It was over before he had realized it began, and he was glad he’d managed to focus instead of psyching himself out. When he looked up, Anna was looking at him with her eyebrows raised, nodding slowly, a satisfied smirk on her mouth. He looked to his side and found Jo staring at him, her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted. Several people behind her had similar looks on their faces. When he turned to look at Dean, however, there was a completely different look on his face; he was grinning wider than Cas had ever seen him smile, a look of sheer pride adorning his face as he gazed at Cas. 

“Well... Okay. Dean, you next.”

“Ah--” Did she really have nothing to say to him? What the hell? He talked for five minutes to Jo and he got nothing? 

Dean began playing, and Cas watched his hands. They were like liquid, except they were practiced and perfect; calculated. But still flowing and easy. He couldn’t grasp how that was even possible. 

His performance was perfect. There was nothing wrong with it-- at least, not to Cas. Anna had a lot to say to him. Although, not all of it was bad.

When they were packing up after class, several people came up to tell him how well he had done, including Jo. 

“You were really good, Castiel. Where’d you learn to play like that?” 

Despite her cheery tone, Cas could detect the faint tint of sadness and jealousy behind her eyes. “I took private lessons when I was in middle school, so I guess I should be thanking my teacher.” He flashed her a brilliant smile and when she returned it, he decided then and there that he really liked her. _How many excruciatingly nice people are there going to be in this town?_

When they headed for lunch, Sam bounded up behind them, positively bursting with joy. “You guys were so good! Especially you, Cas! Holy crap, I’ve never heard anyone amazing in my life ever. It must be, like, in your blood or something!” 

“Thanks, Sam.” Cas chuckled as he watched Sam smile and run away, catching up with Jess, another cellist, and making his way to the cafeteria with her. 

“Are they together?” Cas pointed at their backs.

“Nah, but they will be. Sam’s totally in love with her.” He looked at Cas then, wavering between what he was about to say and what had just been said. “Has been since kindergarten.”

“Oh.” 

“Cas, you really were amazing.”

God, seriously? He knew he was okay but never went as far as saying he was amazing.  
“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve never heard anything like it. That was, like, Joshua Bell awesome.”

Cas didn’t know how to respond to all this praise. He was grateful for it, he was. But ‘amazing?’ ‘Joshua Bell awesome?’ Joshua Bell was the greatest violinist alive, there was no way he was anywhere near his level. 

“Well. Practice makes perfect.” Dean laughed at him, and Cas thought it was the loveliest sound he had ever heard.

***

“Okay, so... Let’s do this.” It was Friday, the day of the chair placement, and Cas was standing in the back of the class, huddled beside Dean, Sam and Ash and Jess standing close by. “We’ll start with the Bass section.” Anna was going backwards, god damn it. It was going to take ages for her to get to him. _Well, unless I’m put in third part, then it won’t take much time at all._ His breathing went erratic, and Dean must have noticed, because the next thing he knew, his hand was being tugged into his again. For the second time. 

Cas looked up at Dean; he was only a couple of inches taller than him, but it was enough to make a difference. They were standing so close together, their sides pressed up against each other, making the moment all the more intimate (at least to Cas, who was thinking along those lines, anyway.) 

“Calm down.” Dean smiled warmly at him and turned back to watch Anna setting the chair, but he didn’t release Cas’ hand. _How the hell does he expect me to calm down when he won’t let go of my hand? Oh, damn it. Crap._

“What?” Dean turned back to him, a confused look on his face.

“What?” Cas repeated back to him, just as confused looking as he was.

“You said ‘crap.’”

 _Fuck, really?_ “I did? Oh.”

“Yeah. You okay?”

“Ah-- yeah. I just remembered something, is all.”

“Oh.” Dean gave him a worried look before turning away again. Cas was seriously beginning to hate this inner monologue he had going. But Dean was still holding his hand, and they were getting sweaty, and it was a good kind of sweaty, and _oh, man_. He had it bad. 

“First chair, violas: Dean.”

Dean squeezed his hand and let go, walking toward his chair as a few people clapped for him. Cas wiped the sweat from his hand before joining them. He smiled at Dean when he looked at him from his new seat. Of course, Dean winked. Cas averted his gaze.

It took a few more minutes, but they finally made it to first part. Cas waited anxiously; there were only five people left, including him and Jo. He began sweating and he locked eyes with Dean, who gave him a thumbs up. 

And then it was just Jo and him. they exchanged looks, and Jo smiled warmly at him. he returned the smile, and suddenly, it didn’t matter who got first or second chair. If Jo got it, he would be nothing but happy for her.

“Second chair, Jo.” A few people’s jaws dropped as they looked from Jo to Cas; some only smiled. Dean and Sam were positively beaming, and when Anna called Cas’ name, Dean started the applause. 

***

It was Halloween, and him and Dean were still deciding what they wanted to do. They wouldn’t go trick-or-treating. Cas did last year, but that was because Gabriel made him. He wasn’t going to go with him this year, even though he was already dressed and ready to go with a patch over his right eye and a sword through his belt loop. He stood whining by Cas’ bedroom door. 

“C’mon, Cassy! It’ll be fun! We can take Dean-o and we can all be pirates and we can steal everyone’s booty!” He winked and wiggled his hips at that, but Cas flashed him a stern look and he sobered a bit; Dean just laughed at him. 

“Stop calling me that. And no. I’m not going this year. I don’t even like candy. And why would I walk around for hours trying to get some if I don’t even like it?” 

“You’re not human.” Gabriel sulked away, leaving him and Dean to continue staring blankly at the ceiling, laying flat on their backs on Cas’ bed, coming up with zero ideas for what to do that night.  
“We could always just watch a scary movie,” he suggested for the fifth time that day.

“Well, I have been told I make killer popcorn.” 

“How can you make killer popcorn? Isn’t it all just relatively the same? Butter, salt...”

“Dude, woah, stop.” Dean sat up swiftly from the bed and pinned him with a shocked look. “You’ve never had dirty popcorn?”

“Dirty popcorn?”

“Shit, okay. That settles it. We’re having a movie marathon and bucket loads of popcorn and you’re going to love it and it’s going to be awesome.” Dean hopped off the bed and ran downstairs, Cas following warily behind him. 

“Do you have cocoa powder and cinnamon? Oh, and sugar?” 

“For _popcorn?_ ” Castiel made it to the kitchen just in time to see Dean opening all of his cabinets, frantically searching for a bowl and his needed ingredients. 

“Hells yeah, for popcorn! Best popcorn you’ll ever have. Now, do you have this stuff, or do I need to go to my house and get it?” 

Cas helped him look, and sure enough, they had everything they needed. Dean started making the popcorn (three bags, holy crap) and then he poured the cinnamon and melted butter in, mixing it with his hands. 

“That looks really messy.” 

“Yeah?” Dean smiled mischievously and brought his hands out of the mixture, wiping them on Cas’ cheeks, making Cas gasp and his jaw drop.

“You--” a devious grin split across his face as he took a handful of popcorn and threw it at Dean. He laughed and Dean reached for the cocoa powder, throwing some on Cas’ shirt and at the same time adding some to the popcorn. Cas ambushed him while he was focused on the right measurement -- _foolish, really. This is war, what was he thinking taking a break_ \-- and jumped on him, grabbing him from behind and wiping sugar and butter all over the front of his shirt. 

“Argh--!!” Dean fell backwards and then they were both on the ground, scrambling to get a grip on the counter to pull themselves back up. Dean reached up and grabbed hold of the cinnamon, throwing some all over Cas’ face, and Cas reached up and pulled him down on top of him, not thinking, and rubbed his messy hands all through Dean’s hair. 

Dean stopped, still smiling, and stared at him. They were much closer than Cas had realized; Dean was straddling his waist, leaning down with his hands on either sides of him, and Cas’ right hand was still tangled in his hair, while his left was gripping his shirt tightly, pulling him close. Dean’s eyes flickered to Cas’ mouth, and Cas’ heart rate quickened, as per usual. _Shit. Oh, shit. This is bad. Crap._

But Dean didn’t move, his smile disappearing as he just kept staring down at Cas, their breathing uneven, and Cas was just about to let go, just about to apologize and start cleaning up, when Dean leaned down an inch or two and closed his eyes, lightly pressing his lips to Castiel’s.

 _Chocolate and cinnamon_ , was the first thing Cas thought when the kiss began. Then, _Oh. Oh my God, Oh my God I am kissing Dean. Dean is kissing me. Oh my God._ Dean slid one of his hands up to cradle the side of Cas’ face, and Cas sighed into his mouth. He gripped Dean’s shirt tighter and moved his hand to Dean’s neck, spreading butter all the way down to pull Dean closer-- but he didn’t care, and neither did Dean. They were both covered in shit, but they loved it. Cas loved it. He loved Dean’s lips. Dear God, he loved them.

Those same lips parted and a warm tongue briefly ghosted itself across Cas’ bottom lip, making him gasp, before Dean pulled back and slowly opened his eyes, staring back into Cas’ mystified gaze. Then, slowly, Dean smiled at him, and Cas couldn’t help but laugh.

“Shit, Cas.”

“What?”

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

Castiel laughed even louder this time, dragging Dean down into another kiss, longer and deeper, involving more tongue and more groping. Cas broke it off this time, and looked back up into Dean’s eyes, gripping his shoulder tightly. “I've wanted to do this since the moment I saw you.” 

Dean’s eyes widened, and he shivered. “Jesus, Cas, seriously?” Cas just nodded, and Dean smirked and leaned down to kiss him again, a gentle and quick kiss this time. “Didn’t know I was that hot.” 

Cas rolled his eyes and pushed Dean off of him, smiling as they both stood and began cleaning up the grand mess they’d made-- there was popcorn everywhere. And they were both going to need showers.  
Cas wouldn’t let his mind linger on that for too long.

Cas showered and changed while Dean finished making the dirty popcorn, and Dean showered and changed while Cas picked out a movie for them to watch and cued it up. Most of the scary movies he had (that were any good anyway) were on VHS, so he had to stop them and rewind them all the way. It took a while.

He ended up picking The Sixth Sense. It wasn’t scary, per se, but it was definitely psychologically disturbing. Also, Dean had never seen it.

“You’ve never seen the Sixth Sense? You must live under a rock.” Cas was overly shocked.

“Well, at least I like candy.”

They settled onto the couch, Dean slinging an arm over Cas’ shoulders and Cas pressing his back into Den’s side, pressing play. It felt good. Dean was warm and firm, and he felt protected in his embrace. He had wanted to be close to Dean like this since the beginning and he was finally getting to. 

***

Gabriel came home halfway though their movie, took one look at them cuddling on the couch, and threw his hands in the air.

"Praise Allah!!" 

Cas exchanged a look with Dean before pinning his brother with another one of his smoldering glares. "What are you talking about?"

"You two finally hooked up. Goddamn, it took you long enough." And then he was grabbing a handful of the popcorn and bounding up the steps, taking them two at a time, his bag of candy in tow.

Dean and Cas just looked at each other before rolling their eyes and turning back to the movie, Cas settling in against Dean again, and yeah. It _had_ taken them long enough.

He sighed contentedly as Dean snaked his arms around his middle, pulling him tight against his chest, and laid small kisses on the back of his neck.

He could get used to this.


End file.
